PI Planning plays a central role in the Scaled Agile Framework. Save time, effort and expense by learning the essentials. Learn the prerequisites needed to set the event up for success. Learn how to design teams around product value streams, and how ART Backlogs are created. Understand how WSJF can be used to rank backlog items for maximum return on investment. Learn how to estimate delivery scope for a PI (Planning Increment), and how to establish PI Objectives. Ensure that both delivery teams and business stakeholders are firmly aligned around PI Objectives and feature deliverables at the conclusion of the event. Learn the critical practices for keeping the program on track throughout execution of the PI, and how to measure success.
The book title is a little misleading as it doesn’t cover PI Planning in detail until over 50% through the book. What it does do well in the first half is give a high-level overview of the Team, Program and Portfolio layers of the SAFe framework and how the PDCA (Plan Do Check Act) cycles in each layer refines the business objectives and they are prioritized and broken down into deliverable stories of value-added code in the least amount of time possible in large complex environments to drive business value. Once the author lays the groundwork in the first half of the book, in the second half the author goes into PI Planning and execution with good tips on how to succeed.
Excellent introductory overview for SAFe at Portfolio, Program and Team levels. The title is misleading, since only about a fifth of the book is actually devoted to PI Planning itself.
As a practitioning RTE, I found a couple of interesting ideas to try. Overall though, the book’s long-term value for me personally is low, hence my rating.